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Happy Halloween November 16, 2011

Halloween gets to be a smaller deal each year my kids get older. Which is every year. Which is fine with me. This year I went by myself to the school Halloween parade. Brooklyn is in 5th grade, and let me just tell you, the costumes are much cuter when you are a 1st grader. On the bright side, Brooklyn was extremely easy to pick out of a crowd! I tried hard to talk her into a cuter costume, but she was set on this Alcatraz Prisoner idea that Quinn used a couple years ago. At least it was easy to put together, and required no makeup. Only one more Halloween parade to go before we are done with them forever. 😦

The Cute One in Hunter Orange

I have traditionally been very bad at providing a time to carve pumpkins, so I made a point of it this year. The kids are old enough that they need very little supervision. I help them with the initial large-knife-carving stage, but they do their own cleaning, creating, and face carving. I even left them mostly unattended this year, with some interesting results. Ryan is definitely a “chip off the ol’ block,” scraping his pumpkin so clean he actually put a hole in the bottom. (When I first knew Robb, he used to tie his shoes so tightly that he frequently broke shoelaces. I have teased him for years about breaking shoelaces, both literally and figuratively.)

Cleaning Out Pumpkin Goo

Unfortunately, our amazing idea for Quinn’s jack-o-lantern to have swirly eyes was much better looking in our heads. His carving was something less than professional, and since his mother neglected to help him, the eyes fell out leaving these hollow holes. We briefly considered trying to fix it with toothpicks, but then realized there was absolutely no way to make that happen. We walked away for a minute, then came back and decided to make it sad looking, like a wailing ghost. Quinn even added a little tear to one eye. I think it turned out pretty awesome!

Sad Jack-O'-Lantern

BOO.

Halloween night was crazy, and not at the same time. Ryan opted to not dress up, but to stay at home with a buddy and watch a movie. Quinn grabbed some friends and went trick-or-treating, followed by some episodes of Star Wars Clone Wars. A perfect night for Quinn. Brooklyn hooked up with cousin Tiffany, and Robb took them around the neighborhood too. Then Lily took Brooklyn to Grandma’s house for pictures and treats. It was pretty wide-spread and low-key. I even forgot to take pictures of Quinn’s “zombie soldier” costume. (Like I said, WAY cute when they are in 1st grade!)

All in all, Halloween was a really fun night, and I’m sure the next few years will be similar; surrounded by friends who are also in ugly costumes!

Robb and I were married in December 1995. Three kids and 19 years later... we have a home in the suburbs, and we love being near our family on both sides. Keep up with our successes and failures, our struggles and triumphs, and the joy of raising our children on this little blog.